Of further interest are the likely mechanisms involved in
the degradation of HRQOL when exposed to turbine noise.
Studies show that the level of turbine noise is a poor predictor
of human response, and dose-response relationships typically
explain little of the association between turbine noise and
annoyance.[26] Pedersen et al.[4,26] and van den Berg et al.[15]
show that, for equivalent noise levels, people judge wind
turbine noise to be of greater annoyance than aircraft, road
traffic, or railway noise. This may be due to the unique
characteristics of turbine noise, that is, clusters of turbines
present a cumulative effect characterized by a dynamic or
modulating sound as turbines synchronise. The characteristic
swishing or thumping noise associated with larger turbines[21]
is audible over long distances, up to 5 km and beyond in
some reports.[1]